Poodles

Photos were taken by Katja Burtina, thank you Katja!!

Everybody thinks she/he owns the best dog breed in the world and so do I :) Now let me share my thoughts about poodles...

When I was a little girl I longed for a big heavy dog with an emotional expression in their eyes- all kinds of shepherds (especially karst shepherd dog), St. Bernards and golden retrievers were my favourite. I wanted a dog who is strong enough to protect me everywhere I go, who is respected, but from the inside a true child with funny ideas. It took me a long time to accept that my parents will NEVER allow me bring any kind of dog, let alone a big heavy one. I fell in love with my stepfather's dog, a bobtail, who came to live with our family, but was already 6 years old and who was exactly the kind of a character I wished to find in my own dog - very devoted to his owner (which obviously wasn't me). However, I have a very big heart when it comes to dogs and any dog can take my heart away immediately, if only I find a glimpse of that emotional look full of devotion to his owner in the dog's eyes. And this is exactly what happened in the summer of 2008 on a really bad day, I was very sad and while I was walking along the beach in Croatia, there he was - a funny curly black poodle-mix, sitting by his owner (a fisherman) and following his owner with those eyes full of devotion and admiration. I sat there on a pier for more than half an hour and he allowed me to cuddle him, but his eyes were set on his master. That funny looking poodle-mix stole my heart and I just couldn't stop thinking of having one. He was perfect - small and cute enough even to soften my parents and had it all: he looked very very cute (though somewhat funny), smart, full of life and ready to follow his master everywhere.

When I met Ben, he was the only one from the litter who had a somewhat sad expression in his eyes. He didn't feel very comfortable around other puppies, and at the moment he met me, he decided to be mine forever and convinced me that I was wrong to take another puppy (at first I wanted to take one of a different colour, not Ben). I guess we were just made for each other.

It is said poodles are family dogs - who love all family members the same. Not Ben. I sometimes seriously doubt he knows my mum is part of the family. He likes my (his) family and he likes all the people in the world... But he only loves me. He wouldn't go anywhere without me and actually doesn't care if anybody accompanies us on our walks - as long as I am there, he is happy.

Without a doubt, poodles are the funniest dogs in the world. Just look at Ben's photos, can you stay serious? He's not only like that on the photos, he's like that all the time. No wonder, the breed was very popular in circuses and still is, so I guess a poodle's main task is to entertain you and play a clown of himself.

They are also known to be very smart, but measuring intelligence by how fast a dog can learn new tricks is not something I believe in, this only tells you how much he is ready to do for you and how funny and interesting he finds you or how much he loves working, communicating and connecting with you. Well, yes - poodles love to work, they love to be in the centre of attention and what they love best is makinng fun of themselves.

Poodles are often seen as "ladies' dogs" or fashion dogs. You can imagine how much I hate hearing this. Though I must admit there's some truth in it. Although poodles are very lively and active dogs, who love all kinds of dirt and mud like other breeds, they are conformists and will stay happy as long as they are with you, even if they have to spend most of their life wearing a parfume and a horrible haircut. But noone will ever convince me they are happier than Ben, who doesn't have to wear these! So yes, I find those haircuts and parfumes horrible, I think poodles really don't mind wearing them, but those poor dogs can't even have some real dog fun running in the mud, swimming in the sea, catching snowballs or enjoying the snow...

I think Ben's personal mission is to become me :) He always wants to be doing eyactly the same thing I am doing - when I go to sleep, he crawls under my blanket, when I watch television, he sits on a sofa with me, when I'm eating, he wants to eat exactly what I'm having (he even eats cucumbers), when I'm playing monopoly or something, he's playing with the dice, and he even sits for an hour by the computer with me :)

Poodles are also known to be very sensitive and emotional and also to be good psychotherapists. They can read your mind and you can never trick them into believing something you don't believe yourself. For example, you can try faking your happiness about their performance on agility, but a poodle will know right away you're not satisfied with one or another thing. Therefore, do not do anything that will make you unsatisfied, avoid that, just do the fun things or start believing everything you do together is fun, otherwise you're just wasting your time. I don't know any poodle who would work only because you want them to, poodles only work if they think it's fun, they're just too smart to work for you.

Right now Ben is sleeping on his back with his legs way stretched out in the air, one hour ago he was lying on his stomach with his hind legs stretched behind like a frog, two hours ago he was walking on his hind legs, begging for food and totally forgetting he was born with four of them and three hours ago he was walking on his front legs in a handstand position, perfoming one of the most difficult - but of course one of his favourite - tricks. That's how it looks like everyday -the weirder a pose seems to you, the more natural it seems to a poodle :)

But just as in any other breed, each dog is a character of his own and no poodle will ever be so funny, cute or smart as my Ben is! :)